High-pressure cylindrical acoustic resonance diffusion measurements of methane in liquid hydrocarbons

Abstract

A novel cylindrical acoustic resonance method for the measurement of gas diffusion into liquids at high pressures is described. The measurements were per formed in a vertically oriented cylindrical acoustic resonator containing both the liquid solvent and gaseous diffusant while under high-precision isothermal and isobaric control. Individual resonance modes of the liquid column, the gas column, and the two-phase coupled fluid are resolved in the fast Fourier trans form acoustic-resonance spectrum (FFT-ARS). High-resolution acoustic spectra measured at frequent time intervals reveal the changes which accompany the diffusion fusion of gas into the liquid phase. One change, namely, the growth in length of the liquid column, results in a systematic shift to higher frequencies of axial modes in the gas column. The temporal behavior of this moving boundary, together with quantitative measurement of the flow to the gas column required to sustain the constant pressure, permits determination of the gas-into-liquid diffusion coefficient. Diffusion coefficients were determined from the change in frequency as a function of time of axial resonance modes in the gas-phase virtual cylinder as the surface of the underlying liquid phase advanced due to gas absorption. Measurements of the systems methane/n-octane, methane/n-nonane, and methane/n-decane were performed as a function of temperature at a pressure of 250 psia. Comparisons is made to results obtained elsewhere and by other methods but at the same temperatures and pressure.